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by WILL FOLKS
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Mired in single digits in most early South Carolina gubernatorial polls, second term lieutenant governor Pamela Evette is going negative – aggressively – against the newly minted frontrunner in this race, U.S. first district congresswoman Nancy Mace.
Evette uncorked a haymaker against the third-term Republican congresswoman this week, hearkening back to her 2021 opposition to then-outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump.
Mace was outspoken in her criticism of Trump at the time – something the former/future president took personally the following spring when he supported a primary challenger against her in her first bid for reelection.
Mace prevailed despite Trump endorsing her opponent, and the two have since made amends – although Evette’s ad effectively chronicled the period from 2021-2022 when the two politicians were bitter rivals.
Specifically, the ad highlights comments made by Trump at a March 2022 rally covered extensively by our media outlet at the time…
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When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Nancy Mace has only ever been loyal to one person — herself. pic.twitter.com/ofpueepwBu
— Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (@PamelaEvette) September 2, 2025
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FITSNews previously reported on Evette’s plans to launch a major advertising offensive during the month of September – and it’s now abundantly clear this months-long promotional blitz (rumored to top $1 million in television buys alone) is a two-pronged operation.
Prong one? Raising Evette’s lagging name identification by portraying her as a loyal foot soldier to Trump (something she does in another recent ad).
Prong two? Savaging Mace as a political opportunist and erstwhile #NeverTrumper.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them,” Evette wrote in post on X accompanying her new ad. “Nancy Mace has only ever been loyal to one person — herself.”
While Mace has been surging in the polls, Evette has failed to launch with GOP voters since announcing her candidacy. Meanwhile, her campaign has been hit with several harsh headlines (here and here).
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RELATED | DOCUMENTS IMPLICATE EVETTE’S HUSBAND IN FRAUD
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Mace’s campaign seized on one of those in its response to the blistering advertisement.
“Nancy Mace was one of the first hires for President Trump’s 2015 campaign while the nice lady from Ohio was busy sipping cocktails at the country club trying to manage her husband’s alleged fraud problems,” Mace’s spokesperson Sydney Long said.
“She’s embarrassed President Trump,” Long added, noting how the president recently “posted our polling showing Nancy Mace with a massive lead.”
Mace is one of five announced candidates for the GOP gubernatorial nomination – along with Evette, four-term attorney general Alan Wilson, fifth district congressman Ralph Norman and state senator Josh Kimbrell.
Filing for next spring’s partisan primary elections opens in March, with the primary itself scheduled for June 9, 2026. In the event no candidate wins a majority of votes in the primary, a runoff election would be held two weeks later (on June 23, 2026). As noted, the GOP primary is the race to watch in South Carolina. As we often note, Democrats haven’t won a gubernatorial race since 1998 – and haven’t won a statewide election since 2006. That means whomever captures the Republican nomination is all but assured of prevailing in the general election next November.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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9 comments
So Pam is making a big deal that she continued to support the wannabe tinhorn dictator after he incited a violent insurrection to stop the legal certification of the election.
Unfortunately voters in SC will eat that up.
Unfortunately for her she still has all the personality of a wet dishtowel.
Well I agree with Nanker on one thing – she has the personality of a wet dishtowel….
She’s so irrelevant and that ad was so predictable.
Apparently the facts that SC is near the bottom of too many positive national categories (education, per capita income, etc) and near the top of too many negative ones (healthcare, crime, etc) matters very little to the individuals running for governor. What seems to be most important to them is how loyal they, or their opponents were, to Donald Trump. That is not only pitiful, that is disgusting, and it is insulting to the intelligence of the state’s voters ( or at least to the thinking ones). Do better.
This is the winning formula to the governors chair (Grok)
The regression formula for voter support in the 2026 SC gubernatorial race, based on key campaign points, is:
\[
Y = 10 + 5.0X_1 + 3.5X_2 + 2.0X_3 + 1.5X_4 + 2.5X_5 + 15.0X_6 + \epsilon
\]
Where \(Y\) is voter support (%), \(X_1\) to \(X_5\) are scaled (0-10) voter perceptions of economic policy, law and order, education, infrastructure/energy, and social conservatism, and \(X_6\) is Trump endorsement (0 or 1). To win, prioritize a strong tax-cut plan, Trump’s endorsement, and law-and-order messaging, per SC’s 2025 political trends. For precise coefficients, collect survey data (e.g., via Policy Council) and run regression analysis.
The trump endorsement is oddly the winning factor according to analytics.
..for now
I think things are changing.
Too bad. Mace was actually decent before she joined the rest of the candidates bowing to Trump. What a crew of clowns we have running for Governor.
Neither woman is fit to be Governor. Mace has proven herself to be batshit crazy with all her rape and voyeurism allegations. Evette sold out to state versions of AIPAC a few months ago, welcoming that questionable group into SC politics and government. Please, we don’t need either of these feminist opportunists wrecking our state.
This is like watching women’s mud wrestling in the old bar rooms! It’s great for drunks and perverts but not very entertaining for the thinking.
I wouldn’t trust either one of these two to lead a girl scout troop much less a mafia with a monopoly on force.
Miss Forgettable and Nancy’s Nook will eventually fizzle out when the mud dries up and the Trumpsters coattails disappear in the rubble of Gaza.
It is funny to watch every republican political parasite trying to kiss the ring and lick the boot of the orange messiah.
Great analogy of the situation, Jeff!